Friday, September 16, 2011

New Old Magic Item

It was a tape of human skin, cut from the silhouette of the dead man. That is to say, the cut had been begun at the right shoulder, and the knife—going carefully in a double slit so as to make a tape—had gone down the outside of the right arm, round the outer edge of each finger as if along the seams of a glove, and up on the inside of the arm to the arm-pit. Then it had gone down the side of the body, down the leg and up it to the crotch, and so on until it had completed the circuit of the corpse's outline, at the shoulder from which it had started. It made a long ribbon.

The way to use a Spancel was this. You had to find the man you loved while he was asleep. Then you had to throw it over his head without waking him, and tie it in a bow. If he woke while you were doing this, he would be dead within the year. If he did not wake until the operation was over, he would be bound to fall in love with you.

Oh my God that's so fucked. What kind of person would use this thing? is what I wonder. Whose corpse would you use? How would a person learn about the Spancel?

Actually I can easily imagine a PC doing something like this. PCs happily do totally fucked up shit all the time, half because they love to complain about how fucked up it is, and half because most of the time the fucked-up-shit is an easier avenue to completing a quest than the alternatives.

@John Evans -- it does seem like a lot of trouble over a love spell, but historically, that's a huge percentage of what people have made spells, charms, talismans, etc., for. Attracting a lover. Securing a lover. Wracking a straying lover with magical torments. That, protection against travel mishaps, death in childbirth, and good old fashioned moneymaking were hugely in demand.

I've been meaning to do a post on erotic magic/binding spells/love philtres, etc. for a while now, and this just might be the fire I needed lit under my ass to do it.

Thank you for providing the ass fire, Zak.

Also, I need to read T.H. White again. I haven't read *Once and Future King* since High School, and I have a copy of *The Goshawk* beckoning from my shelf.

As an adult I read it and am amazed by the subtleties that must have whizzed right past me when I was a kid even though, as a kid, it was definitely impressing me

A lot of people on the D&D blogs seem to judge books based on the characters or the plot or the tone or the genre, but all I care about is style: is it well-written? OAFK is one of the most well-written, stylish novels of any sort I have ever read.

I get that. Looking back at my post a minute ago, I realize how defensive it looks. I'm not sure why that should be, and it seems a bit silly, now. I don't know if I started with this chip on my shoulder, or if prolonged exposure to the internet has somehow enlarged it.

I'm curious to know, in a non-judgmental way, what about White and Peake's respective styles you thought was too "in your face". If you had to narrow it down to just one or two specific things, what made you unable to enjoy the books? Something about the narrative voice?